While we are all stuck inside our houses due to not just a mandatory lockdown but also common sense, social media has become our only way to communicate with people.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still going on, it is our duty to stay inside, but that doesn’t mean we always have to like it. It is further difficult for people who are stuck in various regions, away from their family, friends and in some cases even their country.
Also seeing the death rate from not just coronavirus but otherwise too, seeing how we’ve lost some big legends in recent few days, these are certainly trying times if nothing else.
So social media has become a big part of not just communication but also how we all stay connected and aware that there is a whole world out there. This is why these two new features by Instagram and Facebook are quite welcome.
Instagram Memoralises Accounts
Instagram recently came out with a ‘Remembering’ banner that shows under a person’s display image. This is for the people who have lost their life to the coronavirus disease and is a way to pay tribute to them.
Instagram’s ‘memorialisation’ feature has also been getting a lot of attention, where the platform marks a deceased person’s account as memorialised.
This is good news for those who might want to visit a deceased person’s profile and reminisce old memories. Although Instagram doesn’t exactly have a very clear timeline for when they could delete inactive accounts, but they can and they do.
Some do think that an account has to be inactive for at least 1 to 2 years before Instagram will take it down.
So this feature is good to preserve the Insta memories of a person who might have passed on, but whose followers would like to go through their memories and pay their respects.
With this new feature, immediate family members of the account owners can choose if they want the account to be closed and deleted or turned into a memorialized account.
Instagram does require proof of death “such as a link to an obituary or a news article” before they take any step.
Fans of celebrities and common people too have shown happiness at knowing that the photos, videos, comments and memories that the deceased person shared on their account will remain.
There are a few things that happen when an account is memorialized, those are:
- Photos, videos, followers, posts, comments tags, etc of a memorialised accounts cannot be changed or edited.
- These accounts are hidden from the Explore page and public searches
- No one is allowed to log into the account after it is memorialised
- People can still send direct messages (DMs) and media (photos, videos) to the account, however, they won’t be seen by anyone
- Profile of a memorialised account will appear just like any other normal Instagram account
- Posts of the deceased user will remain on Instagram and visible to those they were shared with
Apparently, Twitter is also planning on bringing about a memorialising feature.
We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part. We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorialize accounts.
— Support (@Support) November 27, 2019
Read More: How To Stop Your Activity From Being Tracked And Monitored When You’re Offline And Not Using Facebook
Facebook Care Reaction
Facebook announced on 17th April 2020 that they will be rolling out two new emojis one for Facebook and one for their Messenger on both the app and web version.
We’re launching new Care reactions on @facebookapp and @Messenger as a way for people to share their support with one another during this unprecedented time.
— Alexandru Voica 💀 (@alexvoica) April 17, 2020
We hope these reactions give people additional ways to show their support during the #COVID19 crisis. pic.twitter.com/HunGyK8KQw
While for the Facebook reaction the form of a face hugging a heart was released, a pulsating purple heart came out for Facebook Messenger.
Many people have already started to see these reactions popping up on their Facebook, while those who aren’t able to at the time will soon be updated with these new features.
Called the ‘Care’ reaction, it is essentially a way for users to show their support and love to their friends and dear ones during this current time of crisis.
Alexandru Voica, Facebook’s tech communications manager for EMEA region, also tweeted the explanation for this new reaction as, “We know this is an uncertain time, and we wanted people to be able to show their support in ways that let their friends and family know they are thinking of them.”
The yellow face emoji hugging a heart has certainly been a good addition to the reaction list considering how with social distancing and many people stuck in places, away from their family, this would be a need.
The pulsating heart reaction in Messenger can be sent with the user first posting a normal heart reaction inside the chat and then pressing and holding it down, which will transform it into the new one.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Livemint, Tech Times, NDTV
Find the blogger @chirali_08
This post was tagged under: new reactions, instagram, facebook, new emoticons, introduced, coronavirus deaths, accounts, death, remove, memorialisation, care reaction
